Red knee tarantula (Brachypelma smithi) growth – double click image!

Red knee tarantula (Brachypelma smithi) showing exoskeleton from previous molt. Click/double click to enlarge.

OK. I’m deviating from what I said I would do in my previous post already…

The whole tarantula “thing” began last July with a captive-bred Arizona blonde tarantula spiderling given to me by the staff of the Sonoran Arthropod Studies Institute during the 2011 Invertebrates in Education and Conservation Conference.

I thought it appropriate that I add a little more diversity, so the two Mexican red knees arrived. They are siblings who were about a year of age when they arrived. Both were brown at that time, and both molted a little less than two months after their arrival.

Above I’ve posted an image showing the more colorful, more tractable individual with its cast exoskeleton for size perspective relative to the youngster photographed in the previous entry.

Lots of growth so far, but there’s A LOT more that will occur over the next decade…

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